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A family gets together for a classic Easter feast in a village in Corinth, on Sunday, April 12, 2026. [Vassilis Psomas\/AMNA]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
What should be a joyous occasion of families and friends getting back together every year in their ancestral villages has, in many cases, turned into a bittersweet reunion with kin that left the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Take Kostas, for example. He returned to the village from Germany with his wife and their two children to spend the Easter holidays with parents, relatives and friends. \u201cI have peace of mind,\u201d he says of living in Germany. \u201cI can raise my children without stress. My life is orderly. When I lived here, I felt stressed out 24\/7 \u2013 even when I slept.\u201d He studied computer engineering and had a job in Greece. Then the economic crisis struck, just as he and his wife decided to start a family. It was an uphill battle that ended with them leaving for abroad.<\/p>\n
Vangelis didn\u2019t make it back for Easter. He had to be in Seoul to sign the contract for a project on early wildfire detection risk developed by the company he founded with two classmates from the National Technical University of Athens. They, too, are based in Germany.<\/p>\n
Two cars I hadn\u2019t seen before pulled in and parked in front of the house next door \u2013 rentals from the airport. Our neighbor came out to welcome her two sons. Both are doctors. One settled in Sweden several years ago. The other ended up in the United Kingdom after becoming disenchanted with the reality in Greece. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy over there either, but it is so much easier to make a plan. You know exactly where you\u2019re starting off from and how far you can go; you know how much work you\u2019ll have to do and what you\u2019ll earn from it. Everything is so much more stable,\u201d he says, comparing his job in England with working in Greece\u2019s national health system.<\/p>\n
The main village square is packed with people. A group of young men and women sitting at the next table over welcome a friend, a former classmate, who came back for Easter. They listen as he tells them about his life abroad, somewhere. It doesn\u2019t really matter where. He\u2019s enjoying a relaxed coffee as he describes his usual hurried lunch break, the only break he gets in his working day.<\/p>\n
For a few days each year, the country opens its arms to its departed children, enjoying the hubbub of an entire generation\u2019s brief return \u2013 before sinking back into the doldrums of waiting for the next homecoming, feeling deserted and aged.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n